?The defendant was overcome by months of emotional turmoil with the victim,? she wrote Wednesday. ?The victim’s degrading conduct…aroused a passion of jealousy, pain and sexual rage that would have caused an ordinary man…to act rashly from the passion rather than from judgement.?

Alvey argued otherwise.

In previous California murder cases, sustained arguments between couples were not deemed sufficient to reduce a murder charge to manslaughter, even when those arguments stretched across years.

Nor was anything Griggs said ?insulting or provocative in itself,? Alvey wrote.

?The behavior (Piazza) describes consists only of (Griggs) being dismissive of his suspicions, i.e., she snickered at me,? Alvey wrote.

A copy of Judge Todd Bottke’s ruling in the matter was not immediately available.